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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

All That's Wrong - PLUS!

From NYMagazine's article on the stomach turning art market -"this is a market in which collectors are even queuing up for works by kids who are still in art school—like Alison Fox, a painter in Hunter’s grad program whose current one-woman show at the East Village’s ATM gallery sold out before opening night, according to gallery owner Bill Brady. He’s quick to add that the British collector Charles Saatchi and the Guggenheim were among early buyers for the paintings (priced at $1,400 to $5,000), and that Fox already has a twenty-person waiting list for new work. “My list isn’t full of speculators,” he insists."

56 comments:

Oh my god. So many things are making sense now. Like the Hunter/LFL connection. Why are all of a sudden all of these Hunter students getting all the attention??????? Makes me sick. Really. Thank you for pointing this out.

Um.....Ok this is wrong on so many levels. Not only are all these collectors lining up to buy questionable work from total unknown babies, while people who have been working steadily for years making great work languish. But also, I just have to say, I went to Hunter. I guess I graduated at the wrong time, a few years too early!!! Because none of this was happening then. I feel like I missed the boat. I have been trying so hard to get my work out there and there is just SILENCE everywhere. You can hear a pin drop. NO RESPONSE.

I just checked out her work at the ATM gallery website. Not only is it derivative and unfocused, but it seems to me she is ripping off Dana Schutz. How can this be? This should be a scandal. Insider trading or something.

This may be a big mistake, which just fans the flames, but I would like to respond to the above post and all of you.

Alison Fox is my wife. Her dealer, Bill Brady at ATM Gallery saw her work at the open studios at Hunter and offered her a show without knowing my relationship to Alison.

The collectors who purchased the work bought it for the same reason anyone buys a painting. They wanted to own it. I do not know most of the collectors who purchased her work and have not been selling her work.

Alison has been very strong willed in refusing any help from me, and has insisted on doing things her own way. The only thing I’ve done is send out some postcards and an evite (which I think most husbands would do for their wife’s show)

It’s much harder to make it in the art world as a woman (see the last 50 years of auction results for female artists vs. male artists), and much, much, harder when you are referred to as someone’s wife. In many ways her relationship to me has made people judge her work harder (your posts are proof of this). No one wants anyone to get a free ride, and Alison certainly is not. She is a talented, hard working painter, and I hope you can all see her show and judge it at as you would the first show of any emerging artist, not the wife of a dealer.

As far as the Hunter/LFL connection, I am not sure what you mean. Here is a list of where each of the American artists I show went to school.

Dude I'll respond to all commenters here. I may talk about myself in the third person just because it annoys me when others do it and I've never tried it before. So first I don't think Alison is a baby fleshing out her first body of work just because she is only 27. Damian got his ACDC album when he was 9 and mastered all the songs on his guitar when he was 9 and a quarter. Maybe Alison started painting when she was 9. Maybe she likes ACDC. OK, Zach says she didn't get any help from their relationship. Bishop. For real, who dosen't get somewhere in the art world by knowing someone. In fact everyone says you need to. Damian got his first record deal because his mom knows this lady whos son's girlfriend works as a secretary at Virgin. There you go!And yes, Alison's work looks a lot like Dana Schutz's without the people. Might I make some suggestions? Maybe liven up the color pallet with some reds, burgendies and scarletts. And more black, as a general rule of thumb, all you painters out there, you can never use enough black. Damian applies this rule to his wardrobe.

Um, Martin? Hate to call this one out (I wouldn't normally expect this from you), but who cares who Allison Fox is married to? I don't know the woman or her work, but I do know that art history is riddled with such interconnections, as is the world at large. And though both fortuitous and not-so-lucky situations grow from those relationships, partnership is a fact 'o life, a fact 'o the art world, and doesn't make anyone a lesser or greater artist as a result (and this is about the work, right?) We have better problems to stew over in the blogosphere, don't you think? I mean, the Gates project has been extended, afterall...

And as for the Hunter kids and all--why so bent? Go back to your studios, make good work, and the rest will come as it may. Hint: Sniping about it online isn't going to draw the interest of anyone, let alone gallerists or collectors who you say you don't care about, but are obviously obsessed with. Every great artist was once an "total unknown baby."

Zach – I’m in Richmond, and I knew Alison was your wife. Are you trying to say Bill Brady is a moron? That post would have gone up even if you weren’t married, only without the “PLUS”.

Viewing her show “as you would the first show of any emerging artist” would be easier if it hadn’t sold out before it even opened to buyers including the Guggenheim and Saatchi! Give me a break!

The work isn’t bad at all but certainly doesn’t warrant that kind of fever-pitch attention.

Sarah – No problem, you haven’t called anything out, except perhaps your eagerness to maintain the status quo. Why are you so over-invested so early in your career?

I don’t think the previous commenters are doing their on-line sniping to draw the interest of gallerists or collectors – they are posting anonymously. I think they're just pissed.

And no, none of this is at all “about the work”.

Christopher Mason – Writing an article about corruption, unfairness, and cronyism in the art market and not mentioning that the young art student who hits it big is the wife of the hot dealer quoted? Do your homework!

Enraged Commenter – “Collectors lining up to buy questionable work from total unknowns”, “while people who have been working steadily for years making great work languish”. I completely agree with you. It’s rotten.

As a reader from Philadelphia, I'd love to see you cover more shows going on in Richmond. Richmond has a great art community, but it really needs someone like you to let us know what we should see and keep an eye out for. Fallonandrosoff.com here in Philly has become a terrific resource in that way because they go to see almost everything and write about it and include images. What's going on at Chop Suey? 1708? Artspace? Anderson Gallery? Where else should we be paying attention? What about a Best Of 2004 list?

Whoah, cowboy. Who's not interested in their career? It is, afterall, how I make a living and how I assume you make a living, too. If you weren't interested in your own, then why bother with this blog? Why link to Oliver Kamm and take pot shots at Zack Feuer's wife? Why send your slides to museums? I do not agree (as evidenced by my own writing on my own blog) with every aspect of the art world and how it is run, but I understand that the same connections and coincidences that unite the greater buisness world also pepper the art buisness world, which is just that--a buisness. Should Allison Fox never get the chance to show her work because she's married to an art dealer? Would that make you feel any better your own situation as an artist? (and BTW the "it's about the work, right?" comment was meant sarcastically--you don't need to point out to me how NOT about art the art world can be at times. Same goes for the basketball world or anthropology world or spelunking world, I'd suspect.)

I've written before about blogs and their usefulness--I wanted to call you out for using a blog entry to hurt an artist rather than to help the cause, and I decided to point that out in your comments section rather than in a post on my own site. I read you daily, consider you a blogger compatriate, and do not aim to make enemies anywhere. But I think you jumped to conclusions here--about a painter who's situation you can only speculate about.

There's nothing radical in such a gesture, I think, and that's all I'll say about it.

I'm sorry if anyone has read this as a "potshot" taken at Alison Fox. It isn't meant to be at all, but as usual when you (or rather I) try to talk about something using specific examples the larger point tends to get lost - with too much focus on the example. The problem is that if you talk about something WITHOUT using examples one gets knocked for that too.

Of course I'm not saying Fox shouldn't paint! I don't even have anything to say about her work, as I have only seen it on the ATM website. I also thought I made it clear in my last comment that my post would have gone up EVEN IF SHE WASN'T Feuer's wife (minus the "PLUS"). I am trying to call attention to and ridicule the SITUATION. I am NOT trying to hurt an artist, I AM trying to help the cause.

I wrote in an earlier post that Dominique Nahas and Margaret Evangeline are a couple. Evangeline had a solo show at the Palm Beach ICA at the same time that Nahas was an associate curator of the Palm Beach ICA. I'm certainly not saying Evangeline is a bad artist or should stop working. Where was the outrage over that?

The different responses (comments and e-mails) I get from artists vs. art industry workers is STRIKING! Artists are miserable!

Sarah - if you want to continue the discussion would you rather e-mail me? I am grateful for the non-anonymous exchange.

It seems to me that Martin only set a stage for his readers could think, react and realize that various situations exist with various connections, coincidence or not. It seems to me the ones that are pointing fingers and so-called "out of order" are some of the commentors. I think that the ability for a blog to gather all of these opinions is great. If you reread the original post the implications are there, maybe, but not putting anyone down or calling anyone out or any hurt. Just a fact. A fact! Take it as you will.

I guess he could lie from here on out if we prefer the over mediated experience of a bush administration twisted truth!

It's funny you mention the Bushes - I've heard him described as someone who was born on third base but thinks he hit a triple. It seems the art world works the same way. No wonder Mr. Fouer can't understand what's being said here. Or maybe he did pull himself up, I don't know... He's acting like a Republican...

This isn't to bust on Ms. Fox or anyone else, but what us ground-level artists are pissy about is a pal-ocracy being made out to be a meritocracy. Ms. Fox should go for whatever she can - but she shouldn't fool herself about it being only about the quality of her work.

I take great offense to it being suggested I was born on third base or being compared to a Republican. If you do a little research you'll see that I started as a struggling art student and did an apartment show in a $600 a month space in Boston that grew into my current gallery. I started in my apartment because I thought the scene in at the time was not covering all the bases – it felt exclusive and boring, and I wanted to do something about it, I guess it worked when people post complaints like these.

I've done this gallery with no budget and worked hard to get here. I’ve promoted my artists, and the artists I believe in as hard as I could and it paid off. I have no trust fund or family in the art business so the third base comment is really out of line. If all the negative “anonymous” posters would do something instead of complaining the art world would be a much better place.

“anonymous” - I understand what is being said here very clearly, I just don’t think you understand that hard work pays off and that building a community and a network is a really important part of becoming a successful artist. Your complaints are coming from a feeling of rejection from the art world which could be remedied with a little bit of work and doing a real project besides anonymous posting. If you claim you are working hard, but just getting silence maybe your work just isn’t good enough and you need to work harder.

The term “Ground-level” artist is a joke. You make your own career and get your own recognition. No one is “discovered”, every successful artist I know made themselves.

“anonymous” - Stop being lazy and blaming everyone else for success through a “pal-ocracy” and make your own “pal-ocracy”. You will keep failing until you do. When I speak to groups of art students about making it in the art world, the thing I keep repeating is stick together, work together as a group. When I go on a studio visit in a new city or with a new artist I always ask what other artists they like – the smart ones answer with a list of peers (and there peers include them in there list,)

Martin - I am not sure how you know who my wife is, it concerns me that someone I’ve never met in Richmond knows about my personal life. It may solve some of your rejection letter problems if you re-focus your energy. On your blog you study and turn successful people in the arts in to the “other”, which is bound to turn you into the opposite of a them. Your no different then them. Oliver Kamm, Dominique, Jerry Saltz + Roberta Smith, Brian Sholis, Alison Fox and everyone else I’ve seen you pick at on your blog and others are all hard working normal people who have figured out how to be a success, instead of hating them and accusing them of insider trading and networking – start your own network. It seems like you have a fear of people that your really just want to emulate. I saw your paintings online, they aren’t bad, you should be able to “make it”, but you’ve got to get a reality check about how to “make it”. (I might be wrong in my assumption that “making it” is a goal of yours and the other posting bloggers – but I doubt it)

Look, the work is not very good. Worse than that, it is bad. Let's be honest here and admit that her career has been greatly assisted, perhaps even unwittingly, by her marriage. Objectively speaking, the work is not nearly strong enough to warrant a solo show without factoring in her good fortune in the marital sweepstakes. In her defense, she was able to graduate from college and she was clever enough to marry well. However, stop the willful naïveté and admit that she has access to people in power in the art world that most recently graduated artists do not. This access is afforded her due to her marriage to Zach Feuer. These are objective facts. Undeniable truths. The real sin is that she is probably so deluded by the false praise that she has been robbed of the ability to actually develop as an artist because she has already "arrived." I wouldn't want to be poor Zach when someone outside of their chummy dining circle tells the emperor that she has no clothes.

Look, the work is not very good. Worse than that, it is bad. Let's be honest here and admit that her career has been greatly assisted, perhaps even unwittingly, by her marriage. Objectively speaking, the work is not nearly strong enough to warrant a solo show without factoring in her good fortune in the marital sweepstakes. In her defense, she was able to graduate from college and she was clever enough to marry well. However, stop the willful naïveté and admit that she has access to people in power in the art world that most recently graduated artists do not. This access is afforded her due to her marriage to Zach Feuer. These are objective facts. Undeniable truths. The real sin is that she is probably so deluded by the false praise that she has been robbed of the ability to actually develop as an artist because she has already "arrived." I wouldn't want to be poor Zach when someone outside of their chummy dining circle tells the emperor that she has no clothes.

Thank goodness that Martin has the courage to write about this. I am a gallery manager in a well respected NYC gallery. One afternoon, Zach Feuer made an uannounced visit to our gallery. He entered the through the front door, locking it behind him. He was brandishing a gun. He demanded that we host a solo show for his wife. I feared for my life. He did not leave until he had pistol-whipped the entire gallery staff and sexually assaulted the dog with a toothbrush. Thank God it wasn't my toothbrush.

Look at this objectively. Does her work, especially as a very recently matriculated student, seem strong enough to support a solo show at a NYC gallery? To myself, and many others, it does not. So, given that premise, how does one conclude that this wee-talented artist was granted such a mitzvah? One could reasonably conclude that good ol' Zach had a hand in this. Even if it was the result of a tacit desire on the part of the gallery owner to logroll for another connected guy. Ms. Fox may develop into an interesting artist. Right now, she reeks of GRAD SCHOOL blandness. Does anyone really believe that this is the next Matthew Barney, fully deserving of a solo show while barely out of the eighth grade? Is this work so compelling? Or, as I posit, is she a merely competent artist who instead of receiving a car or exotic vacation upon graduation was gifted with a solo show by her well-to-do hubby. I would probably do the same if I thought that I could have gotten away with it. It is a true disservice to confer the mantle of "successful artist" upon Ms. Fox before she has been able to achieve any success on her own; independent of her husband's manipulations. Zach, take a break and have some faith in the girl. She'll come around on her own. Remember the old Chinese proverb "give a man a fish and he eats for day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." Teach yer old lady how to fish!

kunty bush.You are just mean. Her work fits in Chelsea. have you walked around there recently? You sound like you are having a tough time in grad school. Are you okay? Are you fat? Maybe some exercise or therapy could help you.

Okay. Let's give our "ham-handed" friend [Ms. Fox] a break. Roberta Smith beat her up enough this morning. It just goes to show that nepotism and mediocrity are a volatile mix. Let that be a lesson to you Zach.

This is outrageous! You have slandered me and my wife. I will have you know that I intend to pursue every legal option available to me in order to see that you are punished for your actions. As far as that scurrilous story about my alleged gallery rampage, both the pistol-whipping of the staff and the sexual encounter with the dog was consenual. In addition, the toothbrush was mine own.

Hi, I'm some guy from Chicago who's been reading this foofaraw unfold.

I have to applaud Zach's humorous response. It is very import to bring your own tooth brush and obtain constent. I do hope Mr. Feuer used a Colgate Soft bristle style.

In all seriousness. I think something to keep in mind is the US and THEM perception going on. It's like "patriotism" and "nationalism." If it's you and your country celebrating, you call it "patriotism." If it's them and their country, you call it "nationalism."

The art world, and just about any specialised insular world, is no differnet. When it's other people helping out their friends, it's "nepotism," and "croneyism." But if it's you and your pals, it's "helping out a friend," or "supporting the team and sticking together."

Of course there are exceptions to this, and it is a simplification. But the art world is not the Bush Whitehouse and Haliburton, or City officals and contractors.

So maybe, just band together with your friends and then you can help each other out, and exclude people you think suck. Or maybe you won't even do it to be a jerk. Maybe you'll just support the work of people you know and like instead of looking for people you don't know who think the world owes them.

Coagula's "Ask Matt" and "Going Pro" columns have good perspectives on situations like this.

I hope that you can understand my handwriting because my ham-hands have a tough time properly gripping this pen. It has been a trying week for me. First, some meanies have been trashing me on some blog site and saying all sorts of nasty things about my artwork. They're just playa hatin' because I got it all going on. I can't help it that my husband loves me so much that he surreptiously arranged for a fellow dealer to give me a solo show even though I just got out of diapers. I wear big girl pants now! Now that ugly skank Roberta Smith wrote some nasty stuff in her review of my show. She called me ham handed, okay I give her that one, but derivative, smelly and fat?! It ain't fair. That's the last time I split a Snickers bar with that bloated cow. The Zachster has been great through the whole ordeal. He said that he would buy me McArthur Genius Award for my birthday. I told him "No, I want to earn it on my own Zachie!," so he said to clean my room everyday for a month and then we'll talk. I agreed to his terms. Only two more weeks to go then I am a genius too! Okay diary, I gotta go and pick up. Zach is coming home for lunch. He is so cute!

Some grad student at Columbia is going to print this out for their MFA show this spring and it will be all bought up and then Zach will give them a solo show and they will be in the Whitney Biennial hanging next to Allison Fox and you guys will be even MORE pissed and the nyc'ers will say - too bad, get better friends, ones with money.

Zach, do you look at unsolicited slides? Cause I do some bitchen work...

A hater is, a person who is: full of hate, very judgmental, negative, sarcastic, depressing, quick to finger point at every little thing they find unsatisfactory or not to their liking or perceived standard (judgmental). This seems to have quickly spiraled into a forum for haters. It seems like people have a personnel problem with the artist or her husband. It is depressing to see so many people unable to deal with another's success.

Shazzam! You done set all us haters straight! How did you do that with your words? Those magical words that turned my world upside down. You made me look at myself for the first time...really look at myself. (sigh) I didn't like what I saw. I knew then and there that I needed to take action. That I needed to make a change in my lonely, tortured life. I needed to like Alison's artwork. Now I am her biggest fan. I love her. Sometimes we talk to each other without even using words. It's just a look or a grimace of fear. She says "leave me alone, I have a gun" or "you are violating the restraining order" but I know that it is just an act to throw Zach off our trail. Be strong Alison. We'll be together soon.

Kunty Bush,Are you insane? Zach well to do? He throws every single dime he makes into that gallery. Zach and Allison met and fell in love years ago, when LFL was a fourth floor walk up in a tiny room and nobody had ever heard of it. Allison's work jumped out at the Hunter open studios. You are going on about something you know nothing about. Quit masterbating your fantasies. Your rants reveal more about you and your motivtions than anything.-Paul

You called me an insane masturbater. Well, you are only half right mister! I know that those guys suffered hardships for years. Zach and Allison weren't always the power-couple that they are today. In fact, when the gallery first opened, Zach used to light his cigars with single dollar bills, Canadian no less. Now that he has graduated to American currency, some of us tend to forget those early, rugged years when they had to tough it alone with an art dealership in an ideal location in the most expensive city in the world and enough start-up money to let them last a lifetime. It's Runyonesque. (turns to audience, tears in eyes) This is a true american success story. A man, his puppet-like artist wife and buckets of inherited family money. The odds were stacked against them. Are the movie rights available?

My bet is Kunty is Martin feeling embarrassed to keep bitching under his own name but still upset at Allison's show. If it's not Martin, insist on a name to publish Kunty or take down the comments. This is getting sad (and a little funny).

All that I can tell you about my identity is that while I am not Martin, I do look & speak exactly like him and I occupy the same space on this planet that he does (although I have a much larger penis.) Just kidding, I'm a very angry female cocker-spaniel with a toothbrush in my ass and I can tell you that it was anything but consensual.

without putting myself through the pain of reading every one of these ridiculous entries, i would like to jump in to say that i was in school in boston when zach held his aforementioned apartment show. i saw the show with my own beady little eyes. it was amazing. i can say with certainty that zach is a hard-working gallerist who has risen to his place of gun-wielding, dog-loving power through determination and pure grit. so lay off. and furthermore, how can you sexist mothers look yourselves in the mirror every morning? seriously.

valerie, are you part dog? while i agree that zach is clear and reasonable, obviously a guy with grit, you seem like you are below-average intelligence. this is funny stuff. where is your sense of humor?

Well, I looked at her art when I was out walking my spider-monkey (smarter than any less evolved dog.) Suddenly, I blacked out and the next thing I knew I woke up in LFL with my panties around my ankles and my rectum bleeding. God knows what terrible things that evil puppetmaster Zach and his minion Allison did to me in the name of "art." He said he'd get me a show at ATM too if I would keep this quiet and let them do it again. What the hell, it worked for Allison.

This is one of the finest things I have ever read. What I would like to know is why Zach won't admit that there is a shitload of game playing and favoritism that goes on. It's no judgment on him. But really. Why not admit to what we all know? You don't have to be bitter to have these thoughts.

Whoa!!!!! I just discovered this thread from a Google search. I am completely baffled by Zach's continuous denial of several facts: 1) As far as abstraction goes, Alison's paintings are simply B-A-D (not that it really matters, quality sells less than hype which Zach knows well). 2) Bill Brady's decision to show aforementioned bad abstractions was a political move and it benefited ATM gallery greatly. 3) Zach started LFL with the funding of two partners, both of which completely bankrolled the LFL operation (and created a monster). Zach didn't put a penny down. And although this is perhaps quite a business accomplishment, it is simply untrue to state that he did it alone. What he DID do, is force these two men to take a buyout prematurely and at a pennies on the dollars of their original investments.

Re-reading this thread continues to enrage me. Zach is intelligent and thoughtful but extremely narrow in his analysis. And just because I am an anonymous commenter, it doesn't mean this is all I do to try to change things, it is just easier to say what I think when no name is attached to it. What's wrong with that? Nothing. You don't need to know who I am. It is the opinion and not the person that matters in this case. However, in the case of Alison Fox, it does matter, as she is totally undeserving, end of story. It is not so much about Alison herself , but Alison as a symbol for the favoritism and cronyism that is rampant. And Zach or any other crony should not fool themselves into thinking their success is somehow deserved and those without the same artworld success are somehow less-deserving, or out-of-it, or haven't tried hard enough. Really. If that's what you think, I feel sorry for you. Spend the rest of your lives in little cramped Manhattan spaces toasting to each other with glasses of nice wine. Tell each other ingratiatingly over and over how much you respect one another. Keep patting each other on the backs and train other salivating MFA babies to do as you did and you will ensure generations of lackeys to solidify your place in the bullshit artworld pantheon. Good luck to you, you soulless fucks. Just don't act all surprised when others want to laugh at you, satirize you and try to take you down a notch. That's just how it works when you are such a success.

All right all loser bottom feeder player hater artist need to stop now. All those hating on Zach or LFL are obviously losers who's slides where not only rejected by LFL but every other up and coming gallery in town. Maybe if they spent more time in the studio working on their chops and worrying less about the competition they might get over. Probably not, the kind of person who would spend a second to write that crap is a lost case.I'm sure they were second string wait list for whatever crappy MFA program they got into. They were that person you went to school with you knew never stood a chance once they got out. They will probably hide doing tenure in some piss ass college teaching hate and frustration to unsuspecting art students. The main reason not to attend a small shity unknown art program they only hire losers.

I was sent this link to see how pathetic you all are. Let me give you some perspective from across the ocean. Zach and I went to highschool together, and I have seen him grow slowly and bust his ass day and night to create one of the most exciting galleries and artfair (NADA). All of you here are jealous losers who dont work and dont sweat. Alison's painting stand on there own. Zach Feuer gallery is giving everbody a run for thier money. And yes people know people and peole help people, this is how life works. And communities of people and artists give cultural context to work. So all you jealous nobodys should apologize to Zach and Alison.

it is foolish to think that any kind of business is done without friends or networking. even when a salesperson makes a cold call, the objective is to get friendly with the potential client.

networking breeds networking.

even if the above allegatinos of nepotism are true, it can't carry an artist's career forever. eventually, an artist has to be able to stand on her own two feet.

i saw a lecture of alison's at kent state this evening and, while i wasn't exactly impressed by the work itself, i was impressed by her ability to talk about it. she is definitely capable of conceptualizing beyond the base level and i am eager to see that develop into more mature works. she is prolific and seems to spend an abundance of time in her studio.

please, instead of directing your time and efforts into creating more negativity for the world, turn that energy into something positive, like new work of your own, or the support of another artist whose work you do like.

i feel the need to re-state now, because it seems to get lost in the thread and i get stuck being attributed with other people's thoughts, what my beef originally was.

did you read the article that i mention in the original post?

maybe not... okay.

my problem was that Christopher Mason wrote an article about corruption, unfairness, and cronyism in the art market and yet completely failed to mention that the art student profiled is the wife of the hot dealer quoted.

i am (or was, this is so old) mad at THE WRITER for his lazy-ass reporting. not so much zach, or alison, or whoever else.